Believe it or not, a majority of video games that people end up playing go entirely unfinished. This is true not only for your massive, open-world RPGs likeThe Witcher III: Wild Hunt, but also shorter experience like your annualizedCall of Dutygames, which boast campaigns that typically only last anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. How do we know this, you might ask? Well, typically, achievements and trophies for games tend to tell the story.
Most video games seem to have an unlockable trophy or achievement that pops once you see a title through to completion. If you ever take a look at these game-completing achievements, you’ll find that on average, around 20%-40% of games are finished by those who play them.Game Revolutionactually put together a pretty interesting article about this last year and examined a few major releases from recent memory and how they have each stacked up when it came to being finished by players.
With this all said, it’s pretty staggering just how many people have seen to completion the recently releasedFinal Fantasy VII Remake. Despite only being available for a little under two months, nearly 50% of all players have rolled the final credits onFinal Fantasy VII Remake. As of this writing, the current unlock percentage for the Destiny’s Crossroads trophy, which is obtained after completing the game’s final, 18th chapter, sits at 48.6%. That might not seem very high at first, but given the fact that this is an RPG which lasts anywhere from 30-45 hours on average, for this many people to have actually finished the game is somewhat shocking.
This is even more impressive when you realize just how many copiesFinal Fantasy VII Remakehas already sold, too. Square Enix revealed thatFFVIIRshipped3.5 million units of the game around the globe in only 3 daysafter its April launch date. Since then, it’s also been reported that the title was the top-selling digital game on thePlayStation Store in Aprilin addition totopping the month’s NPD chart. Furthermore, the launch ended up being the best in the history of the franchise in terms of both dollars sold and units in the United States. The bottom line is that despite still being relatively new, a lot of people already have bought this game, which makes the completion total so much more fascinating.
Obviously, we’re also in the midst of an unprecedented season right now where many are staying indoors more than ever before due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, many more people than normal could have been able to finishFinal Fantasy VII Remakeas a result. That’s not to say that the completion total would have been drastically lower, but it’s still interesting to think about.
Regardless of how or why so many people have seenFinal Fantasy VII Remakethrough to the end, the completion percentage definitely seems to line up with the hype for the game that was abounding prior to release. If this excitement continues to extend to future installments in thisRemakeseries that Square Enix is doing, you would imagine that the same success in terms of sales will continue to be there for the publisher.
